Leave the Horror
by himynameisyoli
Summary: They had won the final battle, and now they needed to be reminded they were still alive. Ron/Hr. OneShot.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything in relation to Harry Potter.

**A/N:** I originally wrote this 3 years ago, a flashback sequence apart of a bigger fic. However, I think this stands alone as a one-shot, and I decided to share it here. The lyrics are taken from "Spanish Sahara" by Foals.

_forget the horror here  
>forget the horror here<br>leave it all down here  
>it's future rust and then it's future dust<em>

They had won the final battle.

The proof of their conquest lay before them, in the form of Voldemort's serpent-like body. Harry sunk to his knees and cried, Ginny ran to him and kissed him for all the world to see. They would never be separate from that moment on.

Hermione found Ron sitting alone on the steps to the dormitories, his face bruised and bleeding, tears streaming down his face. Hermione sat beside him, not saying anything, just waiting.

Ron covered his face in his hands and sobbed silently, finally speaking with the ache of pain that is indescribable. "Did he have to die?"

Hermione knew he was referring to Fred and she wrapped her arms around Ron then, pulling him to her chest where he sobbed openly. "Ron he'd be so proud of you, and he wouldn't regret a thing. You know Fred, he believed in fate with more heart than anyone I know, he never questioned things...they just happened."

Ron cried and pulled her to him, holding her by the small of her back and burying his head in her chest.

Ron looked at her then, his eyes red and blurry and Hermione thought he'd never looked more beautiful than in that moment. There was fire and hurt behind his blue eyes, and Ron stroked Hermione's cheek, and then her hair, which had escaped the elastic scrunchy she'd tied it to. "I'm going to tell you a really big secret" he said, holding her face in his hands, "do you want to hear it?"

Hermione nodded, unblinking, her gaze transfixed on him.

"Okay" Ron said, "but after I tell you this secret you can tell anyone you want. You ready?"

Hermione nodded again, looking at his pillow soft pink lips.

"I love you."

Hermione felt a tear roll down her cheek, and Ron kissed it away, sliding his hands to rest on her collarbone as his lips kissed her face. Finally, he circled around the edge of her mouth, and kissed her soft and sweet. He pulled away, as if half expecting her to slap him.

"I haven't waited six years for nothing," said Hermione, and she pulled him by his hair to her and kissed him like she'd dreamed of for so many years. It is rude to speak ill of the dead, and she'd watched as Lavender's body fell, but Hermione was quite positive Lavender could never kiss like her.

Hermione lost her virginity that night, in her childhood bedroom with the canopy bed and bay window. Her parents were still safe in Italy, their memory still erased until she'd have the ministry find them and correct them come morning. When she turned on the lights there was a muggy stillness to the house; it was just her and Ron, they'd kissed until their lips were swollen and red and she'd suggested to him that they go somewhere _no one _would go looking. Ron nodded and they took the underground to her parents house in the suburbs. Ron had never rode on the underground before and he stared at the tunnels and lights in awe, kissing Hermione in the glare of the window, their reflections faint and ghostly.

They'd tried not to giggle loudly as they came onto her parent's street, just as dark and quiet as it was when she was a little girl and her father carried her to her room late at night. Only tonight it wasn't her father and her mother wasn't there to tuck her in and kiss her forehead, patting her hair back off of her face.

No, it was just her and Ron who kissed her in the doorway, and into her room where he laid her down and kissed her neck and ran his hands over her collarbone like a melody he was trying to get just right.

"Ron..." Hermione asked faintly as he kissed her chest, as she shivered underneath him.

"Yeah?" His voice was throaty and urgent; Hermione had never heard him sound like that before.

"Have you ever done this before? W-w-with Lavender? With _anyone_?" The words came out quick and tasted like copper, she exhaled thankful to finally get them out but afraid for what would come next.

Ron stopped kissing her and sat up on his elbows, looking her in the eyes, his face clear from the moonlight streaming in through the window. "Done this? You mean...what we're about to do?"

Hermione nodded.

Ron smiled, "No, I haven't."

Hermione kissed him and began to lift his t-shirt over his head then, ready to give herself to him. "OK. I'm ready now."

They made love in the moonlight, their bodies moving to the same imaginary rhythm of love. Hermione's whole life flashed before her eyes—from a little girl learning to ride a bike, to always feeling not quite as pretty as the other girls, to the moment she first laid eyes on Ron Weasley, and finally to this point. He loved her; he wanted her; he needed her just as badly as she needed him. Their bodies were so in sync that he kissed a tear away before it even fell, that she felt the sweat drop from his brow and wasn't even shocked to feel it. She cried out when he came inside her, warm and reassuring. She came shortly afterward, and Ron crumbled on top of her, exhausted and blissed out.

"I'm happy it's you I came out of this with. I'm happy I wasn't such a git in the past that _this _was still able to happen. I'm happy you love me. I'm happy I was good enough for you and that you didn't need some big hero like Harry."

"Shut up" Hermione said, shocking Ron. "You know you've always been my hero."

Ron laughed, "So you wanna go at it again?"

Hermione moved under him, taking him in her hands. "I wanna go slower this time, show you some things I know how to do."

"Oh really?" Asked Ron, intrigued.

"Mhm" said Hermione, and it was as if everything had built up to that night. When they created a different kind of magic, when they made love until the morning and the birds chirped. When they learned every contour and scar the other's body held, when she cried each time he entered her because it was the best pain she'd ever felt. When she came so hard she buckled under him and couldn't even scream, he held her and kissed her sweaty forehead. When he kissed her breasts and stomach and _there, _when they finally slept and realized everyday could be this way. Everyday in their forever.


End file.
